Dining in Berlin

The Hackescher Markt area of Berlin is the one end we ended up dining in the most. We went there first on the Monday, aiming for an Italian restaurant named Muret La Barba. We knew it was wise to try to arrive before the peak dining timing of 8:00 pm, but we were still figuring out the transit system then and weren’t able to meet that deadline. And therefore weren’t able to get a table.

For the next night, we made a reservation. That was tricky, as they were pretty busy that night as well, but we did nab one for 6:30 pm. When we arrived we were offered a table we’d have to vacate by 8:00, or we could sit in the bar area by the window and stay as long as we’d like. Jean selected the window because he thought it was a better spot anyway—he has trouble with accents and hadn’t caught that it also allowed us to eat at leisure.

A few things we gradually learned about dining out in Berlin:

They just don’t bring you your bill until you ask for it.

Berliners tend to like to linger over their meals, so if the place is full at 7:30, you’re likely not getting in at all that day.

Your server will speak at least some English, but don’t count on an English menu being available. Might be, might not.

The Google Translate app allows you to use phone’s camera to translate Germans “on the fly” into English.

Getting credit cards accepted is not so much a problem as it used to be. But, there is no tip option. You have to tell the server in advance how much tip to add to the credit card bill. (Typical tip rates there are 5 to 10%.)

If tipping in cash, you don’t just leave it on the table. You give it to the server.

Google Translate app

We hadn’t figured all of that out by Tuesday, however, and were still wondering why the constant delay in getting our bill, and ended up not leaving a tip despite the fine service. Oops.

But, it was a lovely meal. They make their own wine there, and were able to recommend an interesting white to start. We intended to have just a glass each of that, with the idea of trying another, but they just left the whole bottle there after pouring us a glass each, for us to take as much as we wanted, and turned out what we wanted was the whole bottle.

As for food, we started by sharing a bread and cheese plate with walnuts, pear, and honey. Then I had the linguine con vongole (“with clams”) in a white wine and garlic sauce, while Jean went with a delicious mushroom ravioli in cream sauce. We shared a crème brulée for dessert, and each had a decaf espresso.

Tuesday we were back in that same area, this time trying a vegan restaurant, believe it or not: Kopps. And it was fantastic. They gave us an amuse to start, then Jean had a delicious cauliflower and peanut soup, while I tried the asparagus tart.

Not sure why the soup is green, but it was some good

It was a spring roll-like tart

As mains, Jean had amazing gnocchi with eggplant and beet. I had barley risotto with asparagus (again!) and apple—the apple really made the dish “pop”. We enjoyed these with different glasses of German whites.

For dessert, we shared a plate of faux cheese—made with nuts and so on, and served with fruit such as figs and strawberries. Jean was kind of disappointed it wasn’t really cheese (which he knew going in, but still), but I thought everything was quite good. The waiter recommended having beer with that, and it seemed so odd to me, I ordered it. The beer was delicious! (I think it’s only Canadian beer I don’t like.) Jean had a kir royale type of drink that was also very nice.

Our lunches tended to be fine but not worth blogging about—all right udon, OK Chinese, acceptable Turkish. On Thursday lunch time, we were in the Charlottenburg Schloss area of more touristy restaurants. We though it time to finally have German good, at Brauhaus Lemke. We had a congenial waiter who commented on the number of Canadians he’d served that week—in fact, a couple were at the table behind us. And the place had a nice ambience, and a history, explained on the menu.

The food wasn’t terrific, though. German’s not our favourite cuisine anyway, and I’m not sure this was the best exemplar of it. I had duck, and the meat right under the skin was nice, but overall, it was overcooked. It came with some actually very good red cabbage, but pretty mediocre dumplings. Huge portions! But we left quite a bit.

The place was also a brewery, so we each had a beer. Both of those, my friends, were delicious!

After that heavy lunch, we weren’t up for a big meal. We considered trying to do something cool like go to a jazz club, or out dancing, but finally just settled on a wine bar.

Vivent les vins… Libre!

No complaints here about the quality and choice of wines, many of which were French, or the food: We had a couple cheese plates (actual cheese, this time), a buffalo mozarella and beet dish, and another built around bacon and eggs. The only problem was that our waiter wasn’t very attentive. The whole pacing of when items arrived was a bit off; we’d have to wander off and go look for him when we wanted to order something else. So it was a nice evening—but not perfect.

Our best lunch was Wednesday, at the beautiful Café-Restaurant Wintergarten, facing a garden. Their white asparagus soup was incredible, but even more important was that it put an end to our streak of breakfast problems.

We’d decided not to go with our hotel’s breakfast buffet, as it was kind of expensive, and we’re not big fans of buffets. We’d thought that the nearby train station restaurants might be suitable for this simple meal, but… Honestly, if we’d been OK with just pastry and coffee for breakfast, that would have worked. German pastries are almost as good as French, and I experienced no bad coffee all week. But French experience had taught me that pastry breakfast leaves me hangry by lunchtime, so we were looking for something more substantial to start the day.

Googling breakfast places did indeed find others, but they just weren’t that good. So when we saw that Café-Restaurant Wintergarten served breakfast daily til 2:00 pm, it seemed perfectly reasonable Thursday morning to take the 20-minute train ride there to eat it. Finally, five days in: A delicious start to the day! (Belgian waffles with fruit, in my case.)

Then Friday, after sleeping in, we took a ride in a different direction to the place Lonely Planet advised offered the best breakfast in Berlin: Chipps Restaurant. It was totally worth the subway ride and walk. Jean declared his Hollandaise eggs delicious. I loved my “lumberjack” breakfast of French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and greens. Due to concert timing, this turned out to be a two-meal day for us, so just as well we started with a hardy one.

I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK… Photo from Yelp

Saturday night I was hoping to get a nice final dinner, but doubtful I would given, that we were in a random tapas restaurant. German tapas. Not Spanish.

But I was pleasantly surprised by the nice little dishes that were served. Exquisite mashed potatoes with truffle oil. Tender sole with tomatoes. Lively beets and walnuts. Tasty roast potatoes in walnut oil. Fresh tomato bocconcini. Creative fried cucumber (Jean left that one to me). Everything was great.